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sleeping through

hi there

I know we are a long way from expecting Hollie and Tomas to sleep through at 3 weeks, but I wondered if anyone knew if prem babies took longer to sleep through? The whole corrected age thing makes my nappy brain spin a bit, so I wondered if sleep patterns were also affected due to them being born early?

My DD was a premmie - born at 32 +2. She's a rubbish sleeper (!), partly due to some health stuff, and partly because I don't really mind having in bed with me........!

Anyway, we were told that being premmie would impact on how quickly they sleep through the night. I think you need to think of their corrected age rather than their actual age. I also vaguely remember being told it depends on how tiny they were and if they're very little it'll take a bit longer as they'll be hungry and want more feeds during the night.

The SCBU journey is all a little hazy now so I hope I've got that right! I expect someone who's had a premmie more recently will be along shortly!

I would expect so Rosie. Its all to do with the size of their tummies in relation to their energy needs. A full term new borns tummy can't really hold enough milk to last through the night, it takes a while for their tummy to grow to a sufficient size. So your two have a bit of catching up to do on top of that. But as Jodie says, there are other factors such as how 'strict' you are with your routine. Also, their personalities, some babies sleep through sooner than othes so you might not have too long to wait. In the meantime, sleep in the day time as much as you can.

Well - my 2 blow that theory out the water!! They slept through from 10pm to 6am from 5 weeks old, they were born at 36 weeks 4lb7 and 4lb 5, I let them demand their own feeding pattern and refused to wake them for a feed. Neonatal unit wanted them woken every 3 hours, my SIL also had twins at 36 weeks and she woke them for feeds every 3 hours well into 4 months - they are now 3 and still dont sleep through the night. She thinks its because she woke them, my 2 now sleep from 7pm til 7am could play a brass band through the room and no chance of them getting up!! they are now 11lb1 and 10lb 8

Quoted

Originally posted by Rose
t was 10 weeks prem and slept through from 4 months- i guess we were quite lucky really as they do tend to take longer than term babies
x

Here we go again ... my T was the same except he was a little less prem than your T.

He was born in Aug and he slept through 11pm-6am in Dec, 9pm-6am in Jan. However, we did start giving a bedtime bottle of Nutriprem and breast milk mixed at that time and not everyone will want to do that.

My two have different amounts, Cameron only has 4oz bottles but he has high energy feed with extra calories added in due to his cleft he doesnt take big volumes, when they went 10pm to 6 Leigha was having 5 x 5oz bottles she now has 4x 8oz botttles. I think you should take the lead from them really

Each babies are individuals and they will all do it in there own times. Tend to find it is when they are able to take larger amounts and you can get them into more of a day routine, and of course that they are more awake during the day, therefore tierder at night.